I could feel the slightest change in his demeanor, his annoyance a small blip on the radar.
The alien doesn’t respond, but their weapons are moving into place.
“This is a reward for your good behavior. Do not dismiss it so lightly.”
The aliens click again, the ship moving closer, engaging a docking maneuver. They want to board your ship.
The computer dings, a match finally hitting on the language and vessel.
The Striogians are a proud race, the screen reads. To meet their hospitality with suspicion will incite violence. What do you do?
“I’m sorry,” I replied, nuzzling closer. “You’re so generous. Can I have lamb stew with lentils?”
His anger pulsed through me again, and I flinched.
Dammit. And I was doing so well, too.
He pushed back his chair and dumped me on the floor. “You have lamb stew with lentils once a week! I’m giving you a chance to eat anything, and yet you answer with what you think I want to hear.”
“I’m just trying to make you happy…” I sniffed. I’d landed hard on my ass, and it really hurt.
He buzzed his secretary in the next room. “Send in Vorthain,” he growled.
The door opened and the dark priest entered, head bowed low. “Premier,” he greeted. “Why don’t you help your mate off the floor?”
Victor picked me up roughly by the arm, and Vorthaintutteddisapprovingly. “Now, now. She needs to trust you’re her protector. Her omega instincts are in flux because—”
“I know!” he yelled, his grip on my bicep tightening. “But she mocked my generosity.”
My mouth dropped open. “Gen… generosity? Are you fucking serious right now?”
So much for alignment.
Victor’s red eyes focused on me again, his chest heaving. I tried to shrug him off, but he was just too strong.
“Are you seriously telling me that if I’d asked for chocolate chip pancakes and mozzarella cheese sticks for dinner, you would have given it to me?”
The muscle in his jaw ticked, and I scoffed. “Yeah, exactly. So you can take your generosity and shove it up your—”
His free hand grabbed the back of my neck and he slammed me down onto his desk, pulling up my skirt and ripping my underwear in one fell swoop. His foot pushed mine apart and then I heard the unbuckling of his belt.
“Only one of us is getting something shoved up their ass, darling, and it isn’t me.”
But as quickly as it started, it ended, and Victor’s hold on me disappeared with a rush of air, and the sound of a body hitting the wall behind me.
“Control yourself,” Vorthain hissed.
I spun around, heart racing, and gasped to find Victor pinned by the dark priest, his gray, taloned hand wrapped around his throat.
As I’d expected and feared, Vorthain was stronger, and the look of fear in Victor’s eyes was unlike anything I’d seen before.
“You will ruin all of my hard work because of that stupid vampire pride. So like your creator.”
Vorthain turned slightly towards me. “Go, Sage. Your mate and I need to have a discussion.”
I paused, just for a moment to make sense of what was happening, when Vorthain bellowed, “Now!”
It wasn’t an alpha command, but it moved me all the same, and I bolted for the door.
